I find it ironic that you defend them so, considering that all of their excuses for being in a position of self-defense are entirely without merit.

Firstly, let me say that I hate America. I couldn’t stand the idea of living there which is why I moved away as soon as I was able. I have never even dated an American person, despite having grown up there. Not that I dislike America people themselves, just the overall culture. I also hate the North Korean culture of impoverishment, yet I have dated a North Korean. So each individual person is fine no matter his or her origin, but I refuse to live in America and that is final.

(A keen observer will recognize the irony that I have dated a North Korean but never a Westerner, not even an American.)

Firstly, Hodgman, your way of thinking was correct for the previous leader. Not the current one.

For a few reasons.

#1: America may have a spotty history of invading countries without reason, but that was Bush and there was a selfish reason to invade. We aren’t Bush anymore and there is nothing in North Korea America wants. No invasion could possibly be justified. Invasion requires justification to the rest of the world, and the ironic thing is that while Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction whereas North Korean actually does, those weapons of mass destruction that actually exist would merit to the world an invasion by America to get rid of them, yet America has never made any suggestion that it would do so because there is nothing in North Korea that America wants except a strategic outpost. That is not oil. Not even close. Nowhere near what America needs to actually pursue war.

Which means Kim Fat is an idiot. His excuse is that America is planning to invade him.

And yet if America ever did, the only reasons would be that he himself caused it to happen. Either by starting a war with South Korea as has happened or by making nuclear weapons.

#2: You claim he is all in defense and cite the American/South Korean military practice as a reason for that defensive stance.

Those military practices have taken place every year for the last 60 years, none of which have lead to an invasion of his country.

Seriously?

First-off, he has to be an idiot for thinking that this year is somehow different. Oh, unless he considers his own role in making escalating threats. Guess what. This year America did put a little bit more umph in its military practice. Because of his increasing threats in the months prior.

And you cite that as a reason for him to be defending his country?

You hate America I take it.

America should not go through with a yearly practice because of him? That would be the definition of giving in to him. America did the same thing it does with all of its allies on a yearly basis. That is not America’s fault.

Every year North Korea plays the same act, claiming that military drills with South Korea are part of some big plan to invade North Korea.

And for 60 years it has been wrong.

The risk of an invasion on North Korea is exactly equal to the world view of North Korea as a threat, which is exactly with Kim Fat has been betraying since he took leadership.

Calling out America in this case as the bad-guy who prompted them into this situation generations ago is just bullshit.

By that logic Japan would be even more fierce towards America, and why not South Korea too since they felt the same heat from America as North Korea did? They were the same country back then.

Down to how you spin the story?

What has America done except reply to threats towards North Korea?

America was the aggressor in a military exercise that they hold annually? Just because it pissed off North Korea does not mean America actually did anything aggressive or provocative. North Korea is looking for excuses, so that much is obvious. You can’t even omit hands or heads from photos of their statues of leaders without pissing them off.

Were you aware of that? How much do you really know North Korean culture?

America may have done things generations ago that you would want to use as an excuse to support North Korea’s side, but if that were valid then we could look back more and find that North Korea started the fight. Or maybe it was America further beyond that still, or another country before that still.

If all we did was hold grudges, no one would be alive right now.

And I personally am not going to take slack for ancestors of mine who I know to have been dimwitted and less responsible.

If America is not allowed to learn from its mistakes, neither is North Korea.

For the last 60 years America would be happy enough to just let North Korea be. North Korea is obviously the provocateur here.

America has never talked about or thought about North Korea during that whole time except when they suddenly come up with threats towards America and when they claim that daily life—yearly military drills in South Korea—are an exercise to invate North Korea, which has proved false for 60 years.

Growing up ion America, we learned about Iraq and Iran. The middle east. One of my classmates didn’t even know Korea was a country.

North Korea isn’t on the map unless it is shouting threats. That is how Americans feel. So when trouble starts, they brought it on themselves.

L. Spiro

Its funny really, its pretty much the same way with the massacres during the korea war (SK murdered 100-200.000 civilians("communist sympathizers", including children) with the US silent approval during the war), even though NK was far worse it is quite hypocritical to pretend that the west are the good guys. (Sure, we're not as bad as NK, but we're not as good as our governments try to tell us we are)

Propaganda works both ways. We're accusing NK of being too high on their propaganda without even thinking we're being fed up propaganda ourselves. I'd beth North Koreans think the same of the rest of the world.

I don't think a keen observer would find very interesting what you choose to put your dck on. Unless your opinions are defined by your dck like you seem to hint every now and then, bringing up the same anecdotes.

If your profile pic is really you and not a drawing of someone else like you have been saying, then I'd have to replace some genitals here and there I think... Or just put a [insert here your genitals], that would be more reusable :D Reusable post is best post.

I find it ironic that you defend them so, considering that all of their excuses for being in a position of self-defense are entirely without merit.

You hate America I take it.

I'm not defending anybody. I like to look at things from every point of view. It's sad to live in an age where looking into the facts, or putting yourself in someone elses shoes makes you an "enemy sympathiser". I'm probably on a fucking American watch list for daring to read the source press releases from KCNA instead of the filtered western versions...

If you read the western papers, we try not to mention anything we've done to piss off the North, and we always try to throw in some personal attacks against their leader's personality.

If you read their (dictatorial government) paper, they of course have the opposite spin. You also have to keep in mind that from their point of view, they're still half way through a war that's been paused. That's a very different view from what many outsiders would have, where we consider South Korea to basically be at peace (apart from having mandatory military training, and a neighbour that shoots them from time to time, and the most heavily armed border on the planet...).

As for hating America:

America is corrupt and double-faced in all it's policies, domestic and foreign, which is plain for anyone to see thanks to the Internet and leakers... As are many countries.

America is the perfect example of why unfettered capitalism, fear of socialism, bigotry, inequality and fear of the working class are dangerous ideals to embrace.

They're so big and successful while harbouring these dark undercurrents, that they're a brilliant example of what not to emulate. For that, they're useful.

The main hate that I have is when I see my own nation going down a similar dark path -- the same small handful of umbrella corporations owning almost every major company here (often owning both sides in a harmful duopoly), Murdoch owning 70% of the newspapers and in turn having enough power to crush any politician looking to enact reforms to constrain his power over democracy, increased litigiousness across the board, democratic elections giving way more and more to corpocracy every year, governmental discussion becoming more hysterical, informed political debate giving way to uneducated slogan slinging, class inequality growing exponentially, more governments hand-outs going to the top 10% than the other 90% combined, the selling off of public assets to corporate monopolies, the dismantling of the free education system and the building of a two-tier education system, the dismantling of free public health care and the invasion of inefficient corporate insurance bureaucracies leaching healthcare funding, the mandatory detention of refugees in inhumane concentration camps, the power for corporations to appropriate and exploit private farming land and leave the essential water basins as toxic wastelands without accountability, the destruction of a natural wonder of the world for short term profit, enacting or martial law in communities that just need basic services, creation of fake sex scandals to swing the political balance of power, being caught out in international diplomatic lies showing a preference for political power games over honesty and integrity (e.g. we knew about the Assange case before it happened, and knew Iraq had no weapons before the war, but we said we knew nothing - this is on the public record now)... the list is endless, but we're following the success of greed, and all the darkness it brings. That, I hate. I hate the fact that we've got America as a warning beacon, but we're too blinded by it's light to realize the real message.

America may have a spotty history of invading countries without reason, but that was Bush and there was a selfish reason to invade. We aren’t Bush anymore and there is nothing in North Korea America wants. No invasion could possibly be justified. Invasion requires justification to the rest of the world

The evidence against Saddam was fabricated, but the US also justified their entry into Vietnam/Cambodia/South east Asia by having the NSA fabricate an attack on their ships. That wasn't Bush.

The majority of American wars have been based around shoddy justifications, even WW1/2 with deliberately sending the Lusitania to the Germans to sink (against their warnings), so it could be called aggression, and doing everything in their power to provoke an act of war from Japan. These weren't Bush.

Since Iraq, the US has overthrown Libya and Syria (ongoing), though through much more subtle means. The instigation and subsequent justification was simple. The propaganda was clean cut. That wasn't Bush.

Anyway, Bush wasn't the architect of Iraq/Afghanistan, he was just the figurehead and chief that happened to be there at the time to guide them.

There's many incidents where the North has done crazy things to attack the South, but there's also been attacks on the South that the North denies, but nontheless caused a huge amount of tension. All an external instigator would need to do is fire a single torpedo or missile at a South Korean destroyer to potentially start a war... That's all the justification that's required. It's not at all impossible.

Making up a motive for war is worthy of a James Bond story or conspiracy website. I don't have one. But it's possible that someone outside of NK has a motive.

NK themselves don't really have a motive, because we all know, and they know that the destruction would be massive. Their game is to live in a state of war without real war -- the 1984 playbook to a tee.

You claim he is all in defense and cite the American/South Korean military practice as a reason for that defensive stance.

No, I quoted their statements that are being used by the BBC and wikipedia, and pointed out that the original statements claim that these new threats are being made in self defence, while the BBC/Wikipedia forgot to mention this part of the original statement.

What has America done except reply to threats towards North Korea?
America was the aggressor in a military exercise that they hold annually? Just because it pissed off North Korea does not mean America actually did anything aggressive or provocative.

The US violated the cease fire agreement, the one that NK is now in trouble for ripping up, decades ago by bringing nuclear weapons into South Korea. The US doesn't agree that they violated the agreement, because they edited their copy unilaterally just prior to changing this clause, so that importing nukes isn't really an escalation... They started the nuclear arms race, so it's obvious for NK to try and catch up by matching them. You can't at all seriously be reprimanding the North for pursuing nukes, when they've been under the threat of them for decades, and all that time tolerantly (or not so tolerantly) hanging on to the invalidated cease fire agreement.

Every time these military exercises are carried out with imported US weapons, the South and the US are violating the original terms of the cease fire... so why wouldn't the North want to rip it up? It's a bit of a double standard to violate it and then reprimand someone for not wanting to agree to it any more. It's obviously irrelevant if it's being broken annually.

Anyway, they've made this exact same announcement 5 times in the past already... so business as usual.

Either they forget they said it after some more discussions, or eventually a new cease-fire will be written up, or someone will attack someone, and the retaliations will lead to war (betting based on history gives this outcome pretty poor odds though), or (most unlikely) a proper cessation of hostilities and a real end to war will happen.

In the end it boils down to both sides saying, "if you attack us, we'll destroy you", and both sides justifying their statement by pointing at the other's statements.

That's the whole situation in a nutshell.

Looking at it purely objectively, as to the history of the conflict, I don't like either side and I want them to just get along and agree to the current border. The original division into north and south probably shouldn't have happened in the first place, but we can't change that. We've got two countries now, and they should just deal with what they have.

However, bringing my feelings into the debate, I love e-sports and broadband Internet, and I hate personality-cults and starvation, so I wish for SK's safety and the peaceful dismantling of NK...

Anyway, they've made this exact same announcement 5 times in the past already... so business as usual.

This. North Korea has a long, long history of this rhetoric. There is nothing new here at all.

The American media is just bored with wailing about the deficit since Obama has cut it in half, so they need a new shiny object to panic over. Now it's North Korea's turn.

Just as America has nothing to gain from conquering North Korea, North Korea has nothing to gain from invading the South. It is a war they cannot hope to win. It is a war which at absolute best ends in their defeat and withdrawal; at worst, ends their entire regime or results in the annihilation of their country. They stand to gain nothing from this.

Let us even entertain the idea that Kim Jung Un is in fact unstable(though I see no evidence to suggest this). North Korea is not like many other dictatorships. One man does not truly run the country. The military is not controlled by Un in any real sense. I would liken Kim Jung Un to someone like Hitler or Mubarak versus someone like Mugabe or Saddam Hussien. Hitler was the leader of Germany, but only with the support of his commanding officers. If Hitler had strayed too far from what the German high command thought, he would have been removed. Mubarak was tossed overboard simply when he became inconvenient. So if Un really wanted to carry out some crazy plan that would get everyone killed, his military command would just kill him. I nearly guarantee it.

Anyway, they've made this exact same announcement 5 times in the past already... so business as usual.

This. North Korea has a long, long history of this rhetoric. There is nothing new here at all.

Sure, I guess closing down the borders, declaring nuclear war on the US, and moving their missiles to the east coast is nothing new to you?
Or the US flying stealth bombers from Missouri to South Korea, and setting up missile defences in Guam is nothing new to you either?

Since North Korea is taking their sweet time, and telling everyone about it before they do it, I'm guessing they might actually do something.
But it will be such a failure, they will have to get their propaganda news department to edit clips from Red Dawn, Olympus Has Fallen, and
Independence Day, to make their citizens believe that they defeated the U.S in an epic battle.

Sure, I guess closing down the borders, declaring nuclear war on the US, and moving their missiles to the east coast is nothing new to you?.

Indeed, it's not new. They have done/said the current actions/threats before.
Also, if you go read their statements instead of hysterical western propaganda, they have in no way "declared nuclear war on the US". They threatened counter attacks against any aggression from the South/US, including nuclear after the US carried out an exercise where they practiced dropping nukes on the North, and after threats were made against the North's survival.
Telling the whole story doesn't sell papers though, does it? Better to make up stories about boogeymen that are planning to nuke us for no reason at any time.

Nothing they've done indicates that the missiles they're moving around won't just be another exercise as usual.

So some nations have nuclear warheads and decide that others are not allowed to have them. Who are naive enough to believe that nations without nuclear warheads will accept this? By denying nations without nuclear weapon technology getting the technology nations with this tech keeps a certain strategic advantage and power compared to the nation without the nuclear weapon technology. This gives the nuclear nations a certain power during any peace negotiation or even just a negotiation about borders, treaties or business negotiations etc.

North Korea is aware of this, Iran is aware of this, in fact any official should be aware of this. Most nations who see themselves as big players in the international power play will try to get their hands on these nuclear weapons and use them to obtain a better position during any mutual negotiation nations between. It would be irrational not to do so as a nation who sees it self threaten by another alliance or force from abroad.

Now in this case with North Korea we have a nation who meets sanctions on sanctions and therefore has problems getting the salt for the egg for its population. This means some North Korean people think that the world is punishing them and not the gov of North Korea. The gov of North Korea sees their existence as legitimated according to their own world view and other nations sees it as a dictatorship. The have nuclear weapons and use them to show their power. Besides North Korea is not among the five permanent security members in UN and therefor not object to any decisions and thereby put them on halt. Here lies the issue, we have a system where certain nations can behave like they feel like and others not.

None the less a new nation has power to destroy cities with a single missile and feel it should be granted the same rights as other nations with this technology.

The situation is then this:

Should the world accept the situation and let go of sanctions, let the goods flow into North Korea so they can see the same growth as China, Vietnam and Russia?

Should the world say no and start a war?

Should the world keep on sanctioning North Korea and hope that the threats are empty?

What is they really think it is unfair to be met with sanctions and decides to start a war on it?

Never forget how letting German pay for first world war back fired and second world war started, never forget that every single hard direct act or saying will create a counter reaction.

I say let down the muscles, let go of the sanctions, win by using soft power such as movies and music, cash and gifts. Use one generation to expose the North Koreans to economic growth and prosper and then war thinking will no longer be an issue. The alternative is not productive or useful at all.

Besides all nations believe they need nuclear technology in order to protect themselves. It is a common thought among all military forces in all nations if they feel insecure about their neighbors intentions.

Think about it...

Perhaps L. Spiro should take a vacation for a few weeks away from Asia and relax a little

Edit: for good orders sake, I do not agree with North Korea, I simply give an objective view on the reason to this situation and what could be done to do in order to solve the tense situation. My thinking is built upon the political philosophy called soft power which is in contrast to hard power.

The situation is then this:

Should the world accept the situation and let go of sanctions, let the goods flow into North Korea so they can see the same growth as China, Vietnam and Russia?
Should the world say no and start a war?
Should the world keep on sanctioning North Korea and hope that the threats are empty?
What is they really think it is unfair to be met with sanctions and decides to start a war on it?

Never forget how letting German pay for first world war back fired and second world war started, never forget that every single hard direct act or saying will create a counter reaction.

I say let down the muscles, let go of the sanctions, win by using soft power such as movies and music, cash and gifts. Use one generation to expose the North Koreans to economic growth and prosper and then war thinking will no longer be an issue. The alternative is not productive or useful at all.

I think that you're being awfully optimistic about Western culture flooding into NK as soon as the sanctions are lifted, and that this would not occur for exactly the reasons that you think it would help. The country is more or less hermetically sealed, and the degree of sealing does not change with the degree of sanctions they're under. The regime is in power through relentless propaganda and constant demagoguery of the US and South Korea. Suddenly finding out that the wider world is vastly less poor and famished than the average North Korean would probably destabilize the country even more. This is all the more dangerous now that there is are nuclear weapons in the mix.

I agree that the perspective of small-ish, non-nuclear states can produce an intense desire to have a nuclear weapon of their own. However, NK already has nuclear weapon capabilities (though their missile technology is still lacking). The issue is no longer one of non-proliferation (US politics from 200-2008 closed the door on that for NK), but rather that even with nuclear weapon capability NK behaves very unstably and tosses violent and unabalanced rhetoric around pretty casually. It's their aggressive posture and mild unpredictability that make them international pariahs today.

If they let up on the "sea of fire" talk, particularly now that they have more capacity to carry it out than ever, they could be on a path to ending sanctions. Not right away-- the current state is really built on violent threats and bribery, and the world isn't going to forget that very quickly.

I do agree with you, and other posters, that the idea of nuclear containment is not realistic. The technology is almost a century old, and every undergraduate chem student learns how nuclear reactions work. Finding someone who can build a nuclear weapon has never been easier, and while there are few manufacturers who can produce the equipment needed there is still decades' worth of it floating around. I don't think that anyone can prevent a state from developing nuclear weapons capabilities, they can only delay it. And if that's the only outcome I think that the cost of doing so very quickly becomes too expensive.

David Rothkopf has a good article on this

North Korea is dangerously close to crossing a line. Not the line that leads to a missile attack on the United States, but the one that separates being a rogue state from being a parody of a rogue state. Pyongyang's bluster is as comical as its nuclear threats are implausible.

It is by no means assured that Kim Jong Un has fully consolidated his authority. By ramping up rhetoric, but exercising restraint with respect to actual military actions, the regime can count on the fact that the United States and South Korea are not going to take the first step either.

The result is that North Korea's exercises and threats of retaliation have been successful in deterring attack, even though none was coming.

So some nations have nuclear warheads and decide that others are not allowed to have them. Who are naive enough to believe that nations without nuclear warheads will accept this? By denying nations without nuclear weapon technology getting the technology nations with this tech keeps a certain strategic advantage and power compared to the nation without the nuclear weapon technology. This gives the nuclear nations a certain power during any peace negotiation or even just a negotiation about borders, treaties or business negotiations etc.

North Korea is aware of this, Iran is aware of this, in fact any official should be aware of this. Most nations who see themselves as big players in the international power play will try to get their hands on these nuclear weapons and use them to obtain a better position during any mutual negotiation nations between. It would be irrational not to do so as a nation who sees it self threaten by another alliance or force from abroad.

Now in this case with North Korea we have a nation who meets sanctions on sanctions and therefore has problems getting the salt for the egg for its population. This means some North Korean people think that the world is punishing them and not the gov of North Korea. The gov of North Korea sees their existence as legitimated according to their own world view and other nations sees it as a dictatorship. The have nuclear weapons and use them to show their power. Besides North Korea is not among the five permanent security members in UN and therefor not object to any decisions and thereby put them on halt. Here lies the issue, we have a system where certain nations can behave like they feel like and others not.

None the less a new nation has power to destroy cities with a single missile and feel it should be granted the same rights as other nations with this technology.

The situation is then this:

Should the world accept the situation and let go of sanctions, let the goods flow into North Korea so they can see the same growth as China, Vietnam and Russia?

Should the world say no and start a war?

Should the world keep on sanctioning North Korea and hope that the threats are empty?

What is they really think it is unfair to be met with sanctions and decides to start a war on it?

Never forget how letting German pay for first world war back fired and second world war started, never forget that every single hard direct act or saying will create a counter reaction.

I say let down the muscles, let go of the sanctions, win by using soft power such as movies and music, cash and gifts. Use one generation to expose the North Koreans to economic growth and prosper and then war thinking will no longer be an issue. The alternative is not productive or useful at all.

Besides all nations believe they need nuclear technology in order to protect themselves. It is a common thought among all military forces in all nations if they feel insecure about their neighbors intentions.

Think about it...

Perhaps L. Spiro should take a vacation for a few weeks away from Asia and relax a little

Edit: for good orders sake, I do not agree with North Korea, I simply give an objective view on the reason to this situation and what could be done to do in order to solve the tense situation. My thinking is built upon the political philosophy called soft power which is in contrast to hard power.

I'm not really so sure if North Korea is a nation that can be won over that easily. It's not a question of letting go of sanctions. North Korea exists for the sole purpose of being opposed to the US and South Korea. If one can take away that opposition, then there is no real reason for North Korea to exist. It may as well be a part of South Korea to make one big Korea. No smart dictatorship will let go of that hatred, as the minute they let go of that hatred, they will lose power. While it is true that had there been no Korean War, there would be no North and South Korea, the fact is that it did happen, for whatever reason. If you have a nation that exists simply for the purpose of opposition to another (eg yours), then it's probably a bad idea to let them get nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons are not as difficult to obtain today as before, and perhaps obtaining them grants a nation some leverage, but that doesn't mean that we should let people that have a deep hatred for others get them. In the long run, it is not realistic to pursue a nuclear containment policy, but there are certain governments that are too unstable to be trusted with nuclear weapons. Iran is definitely one of them, while North Korea is another. Certain governments have every intention of using nuclear weapons if they could obtain them.

As for the likelihood of war now, whatever the reason may be, the fact is that there are missiles on launchers that could be easily pointed and launched at South Korea, Japan, or Guam. Let's be honest, North Korea has not had long range delivery capabilities before. Now they do. This is new and it does change the situation. Moreover, North Korea has a new, untested leader. We do not know what he is likely to do. Suddenly all of those old reused threats and rhetoric might have meaning now, taken in this new context. Let's say that North Korea is trying to defend itself from aggression. What would aggression be? A South Korean ship looking the wrong way at a North Korean ship? An American aircraft coming to close to North Korean airspace? Or does it take more to be classified as aggression? Again, we do not know. This is not so much about North Korea making threats as it is about the rest of the world not knowing what these threats mean now. Before, we had a pretty good idea what those threats meant and how to avoid making them a reality. Now, we don't. I'm not saying that war is a certainty, rather I'm saying that there are many unknowns here that make prediction of events difficult. I am personally of the belief that Un will try a low intensity engagement, something along the lines of a small skirmish or something, but then he will suddenly back off. That's just my guess though. And I believe that's exactly what everyone is doing right now with regards to North Korea: they are guessing.